tabby

PRONUNCIATION:

(TAB-ee)

MEANING:

noun:
1. A domestic cat with a striped or brindled coat.
2. A domestic cat, especially a female one.
3. A spinster.
4. A spiteful or gossipy woman.
5. A fabric of plain weave.
6. A watered silk fabric.
7. A building material made of lime, oyster shells, and gravel.

ETYMOLOGY:

For 1-6: From French tabis, from Medieval Latin attabi, from Arabic attabi, from
al-Attabiya, a suburb of Baghdad, Iraq, where silk was made, from the name
of Prince Attab. Cats got the name tabby after similarity of their coats to
the cloth; the derivations of words for females are probably from shortening
of the name Tabitha.
For 7: From Gullah tabi, ultimately from Spanish tapia (wall).

USAGE:

"I was playing whist with the tabbies when it occurred, and saw nothing
of the whole matter."
Charles James Lever; Jack Hinton, the Guardsman; 1857.